Idaho Public Archaeology

09/25/2026

Updates from this week:
Area 3 (photo 1) - students have started to uncover a meaty - pun intended - stratigraphic context that’s distinguished by the presence of really big animal bones. We’re learning a lot about what types of food and cuts of meat Moscow’s early inhabitants favored.
Area 2 (photo 2) - about 65 cm down, we have hit a darker more organic soil with domestic artifacts scattered throughout. Our best guess is that this was the surface level when houses occupied the space in the 1910s to 20s. We are likely digging through the front yard of those early homes. We’ve spent the last 5 weeks digging through a clay fill deposit that was brought in to level out the ground when the 3rd high school building was constructed.
Area 1 (photo 3) - we continue to expose the Whitworth school’s foundation, and are firmly in a deposit associated with its 1930s demolition. Lots of loose rock, brick, window glass, and nails.

09/24/2026

Who is that person following our field crew around with the fancy camera and lavalier mics? Meet , a JAMM student filming documentary footage about IPAs work at MHS. Emily brings not only videography expertise and a much needed aesthetically-focused sensibility to our digital outreach efforts, but also has an amazing sense of humor. She keeps our project directors on their toes and in check, making sure we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’re excited to share what’s she’s been working on soon!

09/24/2026

Some of our most interesting adornment artifacts have been these Navy Corpsmen buttons. So far we’ve found 2 large coat buttons and another 3 cuff/collar buttons with this embossing in Area 3’s alleyway sheet midden. We need to do more research to figure out the exact date for this design and also to try to link up who in the surrounding residences may have historically served as a medic or nurse.

09/23/2026

The Witworth School building, built in 1892, had 2 turrets on either side of the front entrance. We believe we have uncovered the western turret foundation. Our best interpretation is that we are currently excavating a deposit associated with the 1939 demolition of the building, so we’re finding lots of brick, nails, and other architectural materials associated with that event.

09/23/2026

09/23/2026

A fun find from this weekend! Dr. Eichner lovingly calls all broken dolls and figurines, “creepy babies,” and this one lives up to the name. Made of porcelain bisque and looking at YOU!

09/21/2026

Tools of the trade! While many people think we simply dig with precision tools like brushes, trowels, and dust pans, we also use larger equipment like hand picks (patiche), shovels, and pick axes (mattocks) when the dirt gets too hard or we aren’t encountering a lot of cultural material (artifacts).

09/20/2026

Some finds from yesterday’s excavations. These are associated with the early 20th c. Residential homes on the block.
Photo 1: iron buckle, 2: ceramic marble, 3: milk glass canning jar liner, 4: plastic hair comb, 5: lead bullet

09/19/2026

We’ve hit the main midden deposits in area 3! Come by this morning to see what we’re finding in real time. We’ll be at Moscow High School on 3rd street from 8am-12pm and are excited to give you a tour.

09/17/2026

Document, document, document! As much as we love to find artifacts, they actually don’t tell us much about the people who used them without their associated contextual information. Where an artifact was found in space, at what depth, and in association with what other items are all important parts of the stories we tell about the past. Students spend time meticulously photographing, mapping, and filling out field forms describing the excavation process and what they see as they dig into the ground. With that data we can interpret what daily life was like over a century ago in Moscow!